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Every person, every day, has choice. Opportunities may be limited. But opportunities still exist. A man or woman set on destruction can create that over the want to build by deciding to pick up a weapon of choice over a tool to create.

Destruction seems to have the effect of instant gratification. You throw a flame into a store, and the store will be ablaze. It’s seemingly harder to build a store. But to build a store requires the same choice one makes to destroy it. You just decide to build a store.

At what point will people decide to chose peace over war? At what point will people decide to build and create as opposed to destroy. At least choose creation over destruction more often than not. It’s well known, to me, that from destruction comes great growth. It’s just how things work. But too much destruction just depletes resources and nothing great can come from it. Let’s not get to the point of no return.

As this relates to the rioting in Ferguson, as a response to the killing of an unarmed black teenager, the community in Ferguson failed to respond in the best interest of the future of that community and the interest of African American people across the country. This goes for both sides of the equation. Entrenched racism, down to the very fabric of this country’s foundation is the impetus for this. But it can be eroded and flushed completely out.

There are times to rally and fight. But then there are times where the choice should be to not react at all. The choice is a silent one. Respond with excellence. Excellence being a subjective standard. But excellence should be recognized when people are achieving objectively accepted accolades. Over time those accolades will build into greater things. And once excellence becomes the norm, new heights of excellence will be formed. And over time, as a culture and people, we will be revered as excellent. Kill us then!? Not a chance. We won’t be killing each other either.

Chose to live differently with the resources available. Do with what you have until you have more and can do more. Today we have a world teeming with innovation. Just look at how far the light bulb and lighting has come. It takes time to build that over decades of accrued knowledge and interrelation of disciplines as materials Nothing of quality happens overnight. But you must be aiming for the quality, while putting in the continuos effort daily to create the envisioned day.

We do not want police officers killing black people and getting away with it. Why? Because it’s fucked up. So the reaction isn’t to take the same failed approach into a new day. It’s to learn and evolve and try another approach.

It is just as easy as it sounds. Ask the artist who created that beautiful mural, or the engineers who redesigned semiconductors. They know what it is to build and reconfigure old concepts with new ingenuity for a new result.

Mike Brown, along with the army of other fallen soldiers (black men), leave their communities with sadness and despair. But the effort should be to make sure things like this do not happen again, by living differently and changing your mind about what life is about and what you can do with your life.

The Decision 2.0, might best be described as the entire 2014 free agent class, with LeBron leading the way. The fact that the players having been gearing up for this summer, for a season in the making, suggests a game-change to me. The players, post-lockout, are now realizing their power differently. As evidence, see Kobe Bryant, who once thought teaming up with other big names was a bad thing, or that he wouldn’t do it. Now look at him. Thank LeBron who is thinking business as much as he is thinking basketball. Think of one of the recent Kobe interviews where he stated something along the lines that their pay and amount of what they are being paid is just as important to them as it is to the owners and other professionals. The 2014 summer is going to change the professional sports business, at least for basketball. There has been grand media attention to this and overshadowed the Spurs win and Heat loss. It’s like last season and the final results are unimportant and don’t matter. And we are seeing that the only loyalty that exists is to playing the game, and to the individual, and to winning. A reconfiguration has arrived. Embrace it.

The Chicken or the Egg discussion usually leads to great theoretical debates and perplexing concepts that rely on other theories…not facts.

What if the real answer is that there is No Beginning, and there is No End.

Evolution and progress is continued growth of new beginnings that are dependent upon other new beginnings that could stem from an end or the death of something else leaving us with no way to know what was the beginning or end–if there is such a thing.

Then, we avail ourselves of the GOD argument. But then, why was GOD GOD? Don’t question God! But does God have a God that has a God? Do they co-manage each other. Is there only one?

Just accepting that we (humans and all life on earth) will become something else, over time, brings me peace. It’s like ascension.

The Fifth Element is a ridiculous movie that taught me something special. And, I feel like I never got the point of the message, until I got the point of the message. This world, here on Earth, is an amazing place, that goes un and under appreciated–far too often. And, we live with constant fear of destruction. With that fear, we preemptively create destruction in order to deal with our own fears. Kill or be killed. How can that change? Is there more to this life than the pain we always cause? There is.

Well, what if NASA in conjunction with other “authorities” on the matter, determined that the Earth was going to be hit by an asteroid, and everything on Earth will be obliterated, one year from today? What would you do today and for the remainder of that year?

I know I would love everything, try anything, and spend my time living in my passions that I’ve learned to be passionate about in my lifetime up until now, knowing they would be expanded in a very short time. This being a codependent concept on our society still functioning in a recognizable manner. But would it? And as that year passed by and there was one day left until eminent destruction, what would you do, and where would you be, and who would you be with?

But then, for some reason, the asteroid changed it’s trajectory, by mans doing, or there being a saving grace provided by God, or the energy of the universe shifting, that allowed us to all live on.

Is there any way that you would be able to return to living how you lived one year earlier?

No.

When you are changed, it’ll be forever. With that knowledge, you can just make that decision now. Live and love your life like there’s only a year or a day left, and I guarantee you will not go back to the fucked up ways of yesterday. I promise our society would be improved as well. All things we do now would be impossible to do the next day.

Be authentic. All the time. We are all still trying to figure out where we want to be, how we want to be, and with whom we want to be around when we are being or doing these things. As we are growing and exploring, always being honest with yourself and others along the way. It will enable or foster the ability to gain respect from others. People will not always appreciate our actions or choices, but having their respect comes from them knowing that this is a sincere attempt on our part.

We have a finite amount of time in this life. While we have it, do the things your future self or those in the future would look back on, with admiration. Always try to be on the side on a decision you feel as if you will be able to live with 20 years from now, as opposed to hoping that you can make up for it in 20 years from now. Be authentic. All the time. Be what you want to be and do the things you want to do.

The significant space between good and great, great being at the very top of the scale, is filled with belief. The person who decides to set a world record (which should be respected as greatness within that realm) doesn’t necessarily know it’s possible, but believes it’s possible. So every time people sit in meetings, discussing probability; or, when people are discussing ranking factors for a particular candidate’s future ability to do a certain job, the most important idea or concept is missing. Belief. Belief that something that has not happened before can happen now, which translates into whether or not any past indicators matter for future unseen greatness.

All this boils back down to very simple constructs of hard work, dedication, passion, will, heart, and mental strength. So go out and take care of the basics to set the foundation for a wonderful work of art. Can’t paint on canvas without a canvas, and you can’t paint without paint–although I guess you could use something else. But I digress. Just go out and try with all the resources and belief you can muster; and even if you don’t strike magic or gold or the goal, you will have learned something for the next time.